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medpundit |
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Wednesday, November 02, 2005Recently, I was reviewing the studies and also Tamiflu, and I found that they talk about being careful when you use Probenecid with also Tamiflu, because it raises the drug level. And I thought about it from the opposite perspective - well this is great, this a wonderful side effect, why don't we consider using Probenecid to, exactly for that reason, we have this tremendous shortage of the drug. And there was one study in 2002 that documented the profound effect of Probenecid on Tamiflu, it, actually it increased the level by two and a half times, and at that time it wasn't really being looked at as an issue of, you know, something to use during a shortage. But if you look at Tamiflu the same way we looked at penicillin during World War II, and penicillin was in very short supply, and as a result we gave Probenecid with penicillin to enhance the effect and extend the supplies, why not use that same idea for Tamiflu. Probenecid decreases the body's ability to metabolize Tamiflu, increasing the amount circulating in the blood. It's an idea to consider, and one that could be put into effect much faster than building more plants to make more Tamiflu. However, Tamiflu is not the key to preventing or stemming an influenza outbreak. Only an effective immunization can do that - and that's something we won't even know how to make until (and if) the virus mutates. posted by Sydney on 11/02/2005 07:10:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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